An ominous rumbling shook the hall, rattling the armour of the guards surrounding them. The large, wooden, decorated door began to splinter, having not been built to withstand such an assault, and some of the guards immediately threw themselves at it to keep it from shattering. Something was coming, and it was big.

A spear suddenly blocked Thiemo’s view and rested snugly against his cheek, his gaze being drawn back to Shining Armor. Only now did the shaman notice how dishevelled he seemed. His mane was not neatly combed as it usually was, and sweat had stuck his coat to his skin.

"Do not make me ask again," he gritted out, glaring at Thiemo. It was not the human who audibly swallowed. That was Lyra, who still clung to Thiemo and, judging by her grip, was just as afraid as himself.

"I would never turn my hand against the Empire," he hastily assured Shining. The stallion studied Thiemo for a moment before turning away with his spear.

"Paramedic! We have wounded!" shouted one of the soldiers who had been at the side of the alicorn. It took a moment before Thiemo recognized him as Rupee. The haunted look of the crystal ponies and the new armour, which now covered his entire body, made it difficult to identify him. Rupee set aside his helmet as he joined their group.

Thiemo eased Lyra’s grip on his neck as Rupee helped her down. "What's going on, Rupee?" Another bang shook the hall and the wings of the door again bulged so far inwards that it was a miracle that they held.

"The humans here in the Empire have betrayed us. Last night they overwhelmed the guards at the Crystal Heart and removed it. They were able to overrun us with an army that had been waiting outside the shield. Most of the city was in their hands within minutes." Several soldiers, whose bands on their forehooves identified them as medics, rushed towards their group. "Bring the princess and the other human to the second chamber."

Thiemo looked down where Lyra and Auralia both stood over Amy and Danielle. The former had returned to her natural form and lay unconscious on the floor, with a hole in her left shoulder. He had not noticed that she had been struck. His sister, on the other hand, seemed to be doing relatively well. She breathed steadily, something she had hardly done the last few hours.

"I suppose Cadance and Skyla are safe?" Thiemo asked as he began to help the medics move the injured onto the stretchers. Rupee was about to answer but a further bang cut him off. "Aura, make sure the door holds!"

The foal seemed momentarily surprised, then saluted and sped away. Some of the soldiers looked confused as she approached, but looked on in sheer amazement as she pounded back a large dent in the door with a hoof.

"The ..." Rupee looked with wide eyes at Auralia, then shook his head and looked back to Thiemo, who had just finished lifting Danielle onto the second carrier. "Princess Cadance is out helping where she can. Princess Skyla is below in the catacombs with the other inhabitants here in the castle, and is being protected by the guard."

"Dad!" suddenly came from Aura. "The door isn’t going to hold—" She was interrupted when something again crashed into the door, causing the wood to finally crack and splinter. "—much longer."

"You heard the foal!" Rupee barked and rushed to his ponies that stood at the entrance. "Get ready to defend the palace!"

Thiemo went behind a pillar to take cover and was about to call his daughter back, but it was too late. With a loud bang, the large door splintered into several large pieces, and bullets began to fly through the hall. Some chipped off pieces of crystal from the pillars behind which the soldiers were positioned. A few even reached the wall behind the teleporter and lodged into it. Not all did, however. Thiemo looked on as a soldier was struck in the leg, and the piece of crystal pierced through his armour, flesh, and bone. His cry of pain was drowned out by the roar of the attackers.

Thiemo peered out from behind the pillar, looking for his daughter, but all he could see at first glance were humans pouring through the now open entranceway into the hall. Some of them had typical weapons like swords or spears in their hands, but these seemed to be from the defeated Crystal Guard. They were too small to really be meant for a human being. What surprised him were the weapons the rest had. Pistols, made in a way he had never seen before, were pointed at the defenders and fired. He just managed to take cover as a large part of the column above his head was blown off. Splinters flew in all directions, and he quickly rushed behind another pillar.

At the entrance, the ponies fought bravely against the human invaders, rushing them with their own swords and spears, but were warded off too easily. Thiemo saw how a man simply snatched a spear out of a guard’s hooves and stabbed his own sword between the pony’s shoulder and neck where a gap in his armour was exposed.

"Fire!" came a call from further back in the room as arrows made of crystal flew over Thiemo’s head. Wherever they landed, it immediately turned everything into a prison of ice. Some humans were struck in the chest and were frozen over in the blink of an eye before they topped over and shattered into a thousand pieces.

The humans responded with volleys from their pistols that seemed to shoot magic bullets. It had a devastating effect on the crystalline nature of the Empire’s denizens, as a pony, one of the paramedics, had his right hind leg practically blown off when he was struck. Thiemo saw his sister fall to the floor and remained motionless as the teleporter flashed. At least Amy had managed to get out.

Gathering his courage, Thiemo accelerated, slipping across the last meters across the floor and pulling Danielle with him behind a column at the back end of the hall. "Are you all right?" he asked out of habit, but she was still unconscious. He could ill-afford to wait for her to wake up. Auralia was in the middle of the fighting, and that was the last place where he wanted her to be.

He leaned his sister against the pillar and looked around at the hall again. A number of ponies and men were already lying on the ground, bleeding, groaning, or no longer moving. The Crystal Guard still withstood the waves of onslaught from the humans, but they would eventually lose ground. Time was a luxury the ponies did not have.

Then he saw Auralia. The explosion of the door must have thrown her against the wall to its right. An imprint of the door was still visible in the crystal. Now she was busy abusing a human in the fashion of a baseball bat. Her teeth had caught the ankle of his left leg, and she swung him at his comrades who dared to approach her. But how long it would last was questionable, especially since she was liable to be shot.

Thiemo could not allow himself to idly stand by any longer. He took a deep breath and rose from the squatting position he was in. This was a war and he could die, something whispered in his mind. But even more than he did not want to die, he wanted to keep Auralia alive. He sprinted into the fray with a war cry.

The first man began to turn to face Thiemo as lightning began to gather in both hands. He did not stop, only ramming his hand into the stomach of the man, who had been fighting a pony just moments before, and allowing the magic to do the rest. The man, perhaps only a few years older than himself, twitched, white froth gurgling from his mouth before he collapsed. Thiemo breathed deeply once even as the smell of burnt flesh reached his nose, but he had no time to think about it. With another flash of his totem, he raced on.

Again he did not slow down but rammed into another man at full speed. The unfortunate soul was lifted off the ground as he flew back against one of the pillars. A loud crack sounded and he went to the ground, blood marking the place where he had struck.

Something crashed into Thiemo’s back, and he staggered slightly before he caught himself. He had no time to think about it. Turning on the spot, he produced an icicle with both hands and hurled it in the direction from which the shot had come. He nailed a man with a pistol through his shoulder and into the wall of the hall.

"Dad!" he heard his daughter call and then he accelerated in the direction from which the voice came. Auralia had been encircled. Bloody patches were all around them, and about five humans lifted their guns at her.

With another cry, he raced into the group and tore into the first of the five. With as much magic as he could muster into his acceleration, he threw the invader over his shoulder, hurling him like a cannonball through the room.

The other four turned in his direction, but it was too late. Auralia had seized the moment to pull another attacker off his feet. The man cried out as her teeth set around his ankle, and with a quick movement of her neck, he clapped his head against the nearby wall. Thiemo had snatched the third one who was next to him. With a quick blow against the hands holding the pistol, he prevented his face from being hit and kicked the man in the stomach. Without accelerating, however, it only made the invader stumble back. This left him enough time to hunt for the weapon that Aura had dropped. Thiemo had never used such a weapon, but the trigger and hammer were easy to understand.

Still slipping, he turned around and fired wildly in the direction of the two men who were now behind him. One of the red magic bullets from the weapon struck the man in the chest and left behind a gaping crater on the slumping body.

"Sir?" called the other person, a woman, as Thiemo now realized by the voice, who looked down at him in bewilderment. The gun in her hands trembled but was still pointed at him.

"What?" Before he could formulate any further eloquent queries, a spear bored through her side until it came out of her neck again. With a gurgling sound, she fell to the ground.

Thiemo's gaze wandered to the pony, Rupee, to whom the spear belonged. "Come on, we'll beat them back!" he yelled over the tumult and reached for a sword with his muzzle. As soon as the pony had come, he was gone again. He jumped over some bodies lying on the ground, and, true to his words, ran back into battle. This had shifted significantly back to the entrance. Arrows still whirled over the heads of the ponies and iced the humans who wanted to move. The entrance was too narrow to evade the projectiles.

For a moment he wondered why no more humans came, but then Thiemo remembered that there were four such entrances, all looking the same. His gaze flew through the room. Something disturbed him.

"Where did Shining Armor go?" he asked himself in bemusement as he straightened.

"Dad? Are you all right? "Auralia asked as she stepped to his side. “These evil people wanted me to go with them, but I showed them what I thought of them." She grinned at him. Thiemo wondered if she had even understood what was going on.

"Aura! Do you see the guards by the teleporter? They’ll send you to the others. "

"But Dad—"

"NOW!" He rarely raised his voice, but this was one of those moments.

Auralia flinched. She did not nod or salute, but she did as she was told. He followed her for a moment with his eyes before looking at the gun in his hand. It bore the resemblance of something someone had fused the chamber of a revolver with a Glock. He pushed the ejector and the chamber jumped out of the frame, a polished ruby ​​glowing with magic. Darkly, he remembered what they learned from Index, of how humans had mastered magic thanks to the zebras. This was probably the result.

Some bursts were fired occasionally, but most of the humans armed with pistols lay on the ground. The icy arrows, however, maintained their rapid fire as from the moment they had first been let loose. It was one of the reasons why Thiemo continued to duck. They flew just so high over the air so that ponies weren’t struck. They weren’t what one would call the best fighters, especially in a one on one situation, but they knew how to use their disadvantages to their advantage.

Then there was a sudden outcry, and Thiemo’s attention turned with some other humans down the giant stairs that led to the entrance. Even the ponies suddenly turned to look at the stairs, then threw themselves aside. For a moment, Thiemo was unaware of what the commotion was about, but then something broke through the destroyed door, something which should not have passed through.

It was a kind of gigantic insect. From top to bottom, it was covered in thick plates of chitin and with two thick horns on its head that reminded him more of a ram than something else. The force with which it raced into the room also brought Thiemo from his feet. However, it did not stop, trampling through the archers at the end of the hall. Two simply disappeared under its gigantic hooves and burst like tomatoes under the immense weight.

This would at least clarify the riddle of what had knocked down the door earlier. It was a gigantic changeling, only that he had no wings and no carapace. Not even the eyes resembled those of Amaryllis’ brothers and sisters. In addition to the normal changeling eyes, he had an additional two smaller ones where normally eyebrows should be. And all four were bright red as they looked at him.

"Damn it!"

It screeched once and pawed at the ground before it charged again. The rest of the archers were able to jump to safety as it set its sight on Thiemo. This monster was equivalent to a changeling-inspired tank, and he had to accelerate to dodge. Thiemo was able to escape as the changeling missed him and rammed into the wall with his head, but the force of the impact was enough to get Thiemo off his feet yet again. It took him to the door and he rolled down the first steps.

He hurriedly rose again, but shrank as pain ricocheted through his body. A look at the source, at an angle that could not be healthy, a clearly broken left arm. There was no time to rue his luck. Crystals flew in all directions as the changeling extended the entranceway again, only this time it was too late to dodge, and Thiemo closed his eyes as he waited for the impact.

"You will cease your actions, monster!" echoed a voice so loudly that Thiemo’s ears rung, and when he opened his eyes again, he saw the gigantic mass that was the changeling lifted in the air. A bright blue aura had enveloped the being, and he saw how it tried to move its head. No, not move. With a loud crack, he heard the neck of the changeling, or whatever served as such, break and then it was flung far into the distance.

Thiemo turned around and found the source of magic far in the air above him. Cadance hung in the air and radiated magic like a second sun. Her eyes blazed with a white light as she seemed to look at the streets below her. "My name is Mi Amore Cadenza and I command you! Lay down your arms or feel my wrath!" she yelled as she went into a nosedive and headed for some skyscrapers. Magic missiles followed her where she flew, and he saw her aim. On one of the skyways stood a squad of men that fired their pistols at the approaching princess. He also saw how some seemed to have found their target, but it did not seem to bother Cadance.

A giant beam of magic erupted out of her horn, and within a blink, it was raining pieces of what was once a skyway.

She did not descend, but flew higher and looked down at the streets. "All soldiers, cleanse this city of all invaders! If they not drop their weapons, show no mercy!" And again she went into a nosedive, only this time she disappeared behind several high-rise buildings, and Thiemo lost sight of her.

"You heard the princess!" The voice of a pony came from behind Thiemo, causing him to flinch. He had been so absorbed in the sight of Cadance that he had forgotten for a moment what was going on. "We're getting our city back!" There was a loud bellow of approval, then a few ponies rushed past Thiemo down the stairs.

For a moment, he wanted to follow them, but that was a stupid idea. Not only was he hurt, they fought against humans. He needed only to find a troop that did not know him, and he would have a spear in his back. He did the only thing he could do and went back slowly to the hall.

There were bodies everywhere. Some groaned, others writhing in pain, but most of them were motionless. Most of the otherwise light blue soil was red, and he had trouble to avoid stepping on it. Only then did he notice that his boots were already red to the ankles.

Taking a deep breath through his mouth, he trudged across to a column that Rupee leaned across. "You look like shit," commented the latter as Thiemo slumped down beside him.

"I'd like to give the compliment back." A spear through his stomach was simply not his style. "Thoughts?"

"I fought for my country and my princess and we won. That's what counts." The stallion coughed some blood on the ground. "I will die with the knowledge that my foals can grow up safely." Thiemo nodded.

"Can I do anything?" He waited a moment, but there was no answer. His gaze wandered over and he saw that the eyes of Rupee were closed. From this, a surviving human seemed to find new strength. Thiemo watched mutely as the man struggled to get himself upright. A sword was stuck in his right arm and an arrow had turned his leg into a single ice block.

He leaned against one of the columns and then saw Thiemo. "Help me..." he croaked. Thiemo lifted his right arm and pulled the trigger, then dropped the gun to the ground. He leaned his head back and looked through the open door where a gigantic shield began to build from the sky around the Empire. So that was where Shining had disappeared to.

His gaze wandered further down as he saw something coming in, or rather, something appeared in the entrance. It was completely black and looked like a mantis, only that it had claws in its upper limbs instead of pincers. Red eyes glowed and its tongue clicked as the eyes of the creature wandered around. Red wings were at the sides of the creature, rustling audibly.

"Hells Bells…" As one of his heroes would say.

Author's Notes:

Again, it took some time, but here is a new chapter. JBL has a new notebook, so we finally can move on.
The empire still is being invaded, Shining and Cadance are out there fighting and the whole thing is a mess. I don't want to spoiler Game of Thrones, but seeing the big fight in season 6 gave me a good idea how a war has to look like. So far, I only wrote small skirmishes and brawls. Don't get me wrong, this is a little skirmish too. But a war is on the horizon.

Special thanks to JBL for translating & editing.